Bloc'd Sofa can be reconfigured to suit your needs

A recurring theme we encounter at Gizmag is furniture designed to make the most of a small space. This is a timely trend, as living spaces in urban areas are increasingly being squeezed. Multifunctional and modular furniture both help ease the problem, but with the Bloc'd Sofa, Scott Jones has also toyed with the notion of encouraging a connection with furniture that will lead to it being a part of your life for a long time.

The Bloc'd Sofa is a simple piece of modular furniture designed to change to suit a variety of occasions. The sofa features a steel and wood frame which supports a collection of firm foam blocks of varying shapes and sizes that can be positioned in numerous different ways to create numerous different seating configurations.

Jones, an industrial designer based in Washington DC, tells Gizmag that the inspiration behind the Bloc’d Sofa was "to try to understand why we hold on to some objects, while we discard others." He continued, "What qualities do our favorite belongings hold? I wanted to create a piece of furniture that embodied these qualities."

The story of the Bloc'd Sofa began with "a pile of discarded furniture I [Jones] walked past on an NYC sidewalk. It’s always interesting to see what people throw away, but I thought it’d be more interesting to understand what they’ve held on to, and why. Beyond sentimentality, I found that simple, intuitive, utilitarian objects were most often held on to, but cherished objects were also playful and offered regular interaction, customization, and hidden elements of surprise."

The Bloc'd Sofa therefore plays on the notion that "the more fun we have, and the more we interact with and can customize an object, the more likely it will become a cherished belonging." This means the Bloc'd Sofa is designed with longevity in mind, with the multiple configurations reducing the likelihood that the time will come when it will no longer be useful, and the interactive element of changing the layout lessening the feeling that this is just another piece of throwaway furniture.

Jones is currently "searching for a suitable manufacturer" for the Bloc'd Sofa, but is, in the meantime, taking individual orders through his website.